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Bill
William "Bill" Overbeck is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead, a Vietnam veteran who served in the US Army 1st Special Forces Group. His combat skills have helped to keep him alive. He is also the oldest of the group. In official media, he is usually seen wielding the Assault Rifle, probably to complement his back story. He often has a lit cigarette in his mouth that only extinguishes when he dies. Bill is killed sometime prior to the events of Left 4 Dead 2's The Passing when he sacrificed himself to raise the bridge for the other three Survivors. Louis's sound files hint that Bill was possibly killed by a Tank. Official description Relationships with other Survivors Out of the other three Survivors, Bill stands out most prominently as the leader of the group. * Francis: Bill appears to have some sort of rivalry with Francis, though the reason for this is unknown. It's possible that Bill and Francis knew each other prior to the outbreak. Another cause could be Francis' supposed hatred of the military (since Bill was once a soldier), or simply Francis' gruff personality rubs Bill the wrong way. Alternatively, what is said could simply be friendly teasing between the two. In The Passing, Francis is sometimes not happy that they have to lower the bridge since it was probably due to Bill's efforts that it was raised in the first placedlc1_c6m1_initialmeeting32.wavdlc1_c6m3_finalechat45.wav. * Louis: As far as the Survivors' relationships go, Louis and Bill do not have much evidence hinting towards each other's dispositions. Bill will, however, seem genuinely upset to see Louis die. ("Louis didn't make it... Agh Christ!") Oddly, this is in contrast to how unsympathetic Bill can be when Louis is incapacitated outside of the safe room. ("How well do you really know Louis?") However, he'll usually follow this by saying he was joking. In The Passing, Louis is sad that Bill is gone, having sacrificed himself for the others, but is resolved more than ever to stay with Francis and Zoey. When killing a Tank, Louis may proclaim the kill in Bill's name for revengedlc1_killfinaltank01. * Zoey: The relationship between Bill and Zoey appears to be fairly strong. Bill is openly sorrowful when Zoey is killed. ("Aghh.. not up Zoey.") When Zoey is incapacitated on the other side of the safe room ("I can't leave Zoey out there!"), Bill verbally refuses to leave her behind. ("Zoey can't stay out there! We have to help her."). Perhaps Bill looks at her as a sort of daughter or grand-daughter, given her youth. In The Passing, if Louis and Francis joke about Bill, Zoey may look away or look very sad, hinting that she is the one that misses him the most. Unfortunately, Bill did not live long enough to meet the Survivors of Left 4 Dead 2, although Francis and Louis joke that Bill probably would have shot Nick within a very short time frame due to his personality. Rochelle also shows understanding and sympathy to Bill's passing in certain lines to the Original survivors. Quotes and Captions See: Bill/Quotes and Captions Notes * On the poster for Dead Air, his beret has a blue, star bordered U.S. Army General Service Beret flash on it, not the Yellow U.S. army 1st Special Forces Group beret flash as it appears in the game, and on the rest of the posters. It is also the only poster in which he isn't smoking his trademark cigarette. * Jim French, who voices Bill in Left 4 Dead, also voiced Father Grigori from Half-Life 2 and The Fisherman from Half-Life 2 Lost Coast. * Bill was a "narrator" in the cut intros of the campaigns. * Bill is always seen smoking his trademark cigarette. Even when he is dead, it manages to stay in his mouth. In The Passing, however, his cigarette is missing from his corpse. When he dies in-game, it is no longer lit; the only exception is during the opening scene where he doesn't light the cigarette until the end. * Bill will occasionally comment with a rebellious "what a load of horseshit" to "No Smoking" signs that the Survivors encounter during the campaigns, perhaps as a joke to himself. * Bill served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War. U.S. Special Forces involvement in the war ended in 1972, so the latest Bill could have been there would have been in 1972. Hence, if the game occurs in 2009, Bill is at least in his sixties or older. * Bill believes that the Survivors may become infected at any second. In the earlier versions, seen in cut lines, he was close to being paranoid about the fact they may be infected, while the virus is mutating in their bodies. Currently, the closest Bill comes to mentioning anything about themselves regarding the Infection is in No Mercy, where one of his possible lines involves the uncomfortable topic of dealing with him in the event he starts to turn.Generic33.wav * Bill is currently the only Survivor with a confirmed last name. "Overbeck" can be found on his military jacket. * When using a third person mod or cheat (only for computer), one can see that Bill has a severe limp when he is at critical health. The other Survivors also stagger, but this is further proof that he injured his right leg in his line of work at some point. * Pre-orders for Left 4 Dead 2 would give Team Fortress 2 owners Bill's Hat as a unique, in-game item. It appears as a brown or dark blue beret (its subtitle is "Level 10 Veteran's Beret). The back-story behind this is that Bill's hat fell off a table and into another dimension, landing in the Team Fortress 2 universe. * Bill is the only character to not gain any new lines in the Crash Course DLC, as Valve was unable to contact voice actor Jim French in time for him to record new lines. Due to Bill's death presumably prior to The Passing DLC, he does not have any new lines there either. * In the very first trailer of Left 4 Dead, Bill is killed by the early version of the Smoker, who clawed him to death. First the Smoker can be seen behind him, than there are two struggling figures in the dark, one performing the Smoker's clawing animation. The next second, blood sprays onto a car. * In the game files, Bill is called "namvet", referring to "Vietnam Veteran". * It is hinted that Bill may have had previous contact with the Witch because of the slashes in the back of his outfit; and, in the intro, when he tells Zoey to turn off her flashlight when he notices the crying is coming from a Witch. However, this may also be because he saw her claws or her general inhuman appearance. * Bill shares a name with a character from the 1997 film RocketMan. William "Wild Bill" Overbeck, played by William Sadler, is the flight director and one of the three humans assigned to the Mars mission that is the focus of the film. * There is an odd glitch that sometimes occurs when Bill is shot by Francis. He will scold Francis almost instantly instead of a second after being shot. This has caused some strange, yet humorous, situations where he can scold Francis while falling to the ground incapacitated or when he is killed by Francis (his mouth won't move as he's already dead). * In terms of Left 4 Dead 2's Weapon Tier system, Bill is the only original Survivor with a Tier 2 weapon as a signature firearm being the Assault Rifle. * Bill could possibly have been a resident of the City of Fairfield before the Infection, judging by his knowledge of the city and certain places, such as the Red Line Subway and Mercy Hospital. * Bill gave his life to save the other Left 4 Dead Survivors prior to the events of Left 4 Dead 2's The Passing. * Bill is the only main Survivor to canonically die within the story so far. * Judging from the bloodstains, it is possible that Bill was injured, and was pulled into the generator room by a Smoker on top of the generator. This is backed-up by the fact that, if you watch the Smoker's dragging animation, it would fit perfectly with the straight line of blood. * However, in The Passing, when Louis kills a Tank, he may say "That...is for Bill!" which suggests more that a Tank may be the reason Bill is dead, unless it was a team effort by a Smoker immobilizing Bill while a Tank finished him off. Gallery File:Trailerscreen 01.jpg|Bill as he appears in the Left 4 Dead intro. File:Bill-survivors-alley-1920-2.jpg|Bill's appearance during initial game development. File:Picture1.jpg|Concept art of beta Bill. File:Bernard 005.JPG|Bill's face model, Bernard Fouquet. File:Bills.jpg|Head shot of Bill. File:Bill deceased.jpg|Bill's final resting place. References Category:The Survivors Category:Left 4 Dead